HISTORY

A Little History:
Our story begins in Pocatello, Idaho, circa 1972, when the lovely Debby Christensen agreed to a first, though fateful date with admirer, David Croshaw. Long story-short, he bade her follow him, and they went arm-in-arm to the Logan, Utah temple for establishment of an eternal family unit, Generation 1, on May 23 1973.

From their first blissful summer in Salt Lake City, educational pursuits took them to Provo/Orem, Utah, birthplace of Leslie and Rebecca, and to San Francisco/Oakland California, birthplace of Colin and Matt. Then, for establishment of livelihood, expansion of the tribe with Abby and Dana, and for raising/unifying of Generation 2, it was back to the roots in Pocatello for a rewarding sojourn.

In time, driven by a raging, but commonly shared sense of adventure and independence, one-by-one, Generation 2 escaped the homeland to distant regions of the country and the world, each ultimately developing their own tribal expansions by pairing with worthy mates and initiating Generation 3.

Now sensing fulfillment of their purpose in Pocatello, Generation 1 has also left those roots and transplanted to Cascade Idaho, from which base, they anticipate more abundant contact with The Posterity, Generations 2 and 3, in the future. That contact however, awaits fulfillment of a call to LDS missionary service in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, wherein they hope to help the state of the world by sharing the love of Jesus Christ.

So now, including Generation 0 (Grandma and Grandpa Christensen) home base includes Yuma, Arizona, Pocatello, Idaho, Cascade, Idaho, Vancouver, BC, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Spokane, Washington, Boise, Idaho, Los Angeles, California, back to Boise, Idaho, and on and on (Generation 3+) to infinity.

Our Mission Statement:
This is the blog of our eternal family unit. Initiated years ago, it served well as a journal, but even more so, as an archive of our personal interaction. It was a gathering place, a confabulation instrument, a unifying force for four generations of widely dispersed and progressively prolific posterity, and their valued associates. Though it served these purposes well for many years, it eventually took a back seat to new-kids-on-the-block, Facebook, and Instagram, and was sadly forgotten.

We now move to resurrect this blog with an added functional purpose of archiving the missionary experiences of Generation 1, of their movements and activities as they participate with The Gathering of Israel in the land northward. In so doing, we hope that via their own comments and posts, this blog will again serve to gather and unify the posterity and their friends.

As in the past, that the young and vibrant may know the old and tired, that enduring bonds may be fostered and maintained, that experience and encouragement may be openly shared, that posterity may embrace truth, and that hearts may be knit together, we must resist detachment despite our geographic divergence. We shall do so here.
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Friday, December 18, 2009

West vs. East

I kind of got a kick out of this editorial. Makes me miss the west...a lot!!

Some of the best I've personally ever heard.

Scenario 1
Easterner: So, where are you from?
Me: Idaho.
Easterner: Oh, Ohio?
Me: No, Idaho.
Easterner: You mean, Iowa?
Me: No, Idaho...Famous Potatoes...a big state in the west.
Easterner: Oh, I don't think I've ever been there.

Scenario 2
Easterner: So, where are you from?
Me: Idaho
Easterner: Oh, I haven't spent much time in the mid-west.
Me: *Sigh*

Clueless in Costco- by Timothy Egan
For a native Westerner, the slights from the other end of the country start early, and build through a lifetime: national broadcasters on election night who cannot pronounce Oregon (it’s like gun) or Nevada (it’s not Nev-odda), or a toll-free clerk who thinks New Mexico is part of old Mexico.

“You’ll have to go through your own embassy,” a resident of Santa Fe was told when trying to order Olympic tickets for games on American soil.

Geographic illiteracy from the Eastern Time Zone is a given, especially among the well-educated. A New York book publisher, and Harvard grad at that, once asked me if I ever take the ferry up to Alaska for the afternoon. No, I replied: do you ever go to Greenland on a day trip?

Norman Maclean, the great Montana writer, had a worse experience. He complained that an editor turned down his masterpiece, “A River Runs Through It,” because it had too many trees in it.

A media titan, The Washington Post, recently announced they were calling home their remaining national correspondents, explaining that the paper was perfectly capable of covering the rest of the country from inside the Beltway. By that reasoning, the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner can discern what’s happening in the capital from their home base near the Arctic Circle.

Sports is a grievance category all its own. If you Google “East Coast Bias,” up comes a long litany of stories about how the West never gets any respect from those great deciders in the East.

So, naturally, Toby Gerhart of Stanford didn’t receive this year’s Heisman Trophy, awarded annually to the nation’s best college football player, despite leading elite colleges in rushing yards, rushing touchdowns, total touchdowns and points scored. Many of the voters were asleep, or Saturday-night-blotto, when Gerhart was dazzling the football world this fall. The voting map was a geography of bias.

These are all minor annoyances, mind you, in a world with daily reminders that an embittered, small-hearted senator from Connecticut can hold up health care for millions, or some people would rather read a “book” by Hulk Hogan than a short story by Sherman Alexie.

But every now and then those of us who reside on the sunset side of the 100th meridian get a chance to rub it in the other way.

Consider the fuss over Costco landing on the island of Manhattan last month. Costco is the nation’s third largest retailer, with more than 400 warehouse stores in the United States alone. Liberals love Costco because they pay their workers about 40 percent more than their big box rivals.

Conservatives love them because they sell Sarah Palin’s book by the pallet, next to the camo wear.

Costco is a brilliant retail concept, but it’s not news. It’s been around for, oh . . . a quarter-century or so. Some of the gushing posts on New York-based Web sites after Costco opened on East 117th Street have all the breathless urgency of a tourist who has discovered bagels in Boulder.

“It’s amazing how many things you can get for a fairly decent price!” One shopper wrote on Yelp New York, the online review site. Um, that’s the idea. And other observers have seemed befuddled in the big box, overwhelmed by the lure of tube sox and toilet paper to last a lifetime.

Most Westerners may not know schmear from schmaltz, but they can tell a sophisticated urban shopper to stick with the to-die-for olive oil, cold-pressed just a few weeks ago in Tuscany, and the $1.50 quarter-pound hot dog when under the high fluorescent sky of a Costco warehouse.

Speaking of my newspaper — please, it’s the holidays, a time for indulgence in all things — they recently discovered a newsworthy item from the Mountain West: Jews in Montana. Imagine!

One more bit of news on this front: the nation’s first elected Jewish governor was a Western man. And a Democrat. In Idaho. Moses Alexander governed the land of famous potatoes from 1915 to 1919.

As a longtime Western representative of The New York Times, which is well read in these provinces, I feel the rub of faux-rube pandering both ways. Here, people are amazed I can find Twitty, Texas, on a map, and — more surprising, can vouch for the peach cobbler. There, the wonder is that I know which side of the plate to keep the salad fork. Sort of.

16 comments:

abbynormal said...

I have experienced both of those scenarios more times than I can count. When I used to work at the Census, I kept a map on my cubicle wall that clearly included Idaho in the portion of the country labeled "WEST" so I could prove it to everyone who didn't believe me - as if they knew better than me what portion of the country my home state is in. Half of them still didn't buy it because it doesn't touch the Pacific. Sigh.

rebeccaV said...

Love it! When I registered our car in Oklahoma the lady asked where we were moving from. I told her New Mexico. She said, "oh, that is a nice country". haha!

David and Debby said...

what i hate is watching the weather channel. they will forecast weather all around idaho and kinds of act like we aren't there. no respect for us poor western states.

Alex Esparza said...

I think many people need to know more about geography and general cultural information. Example
When the people ask me where I'm from, I say From Mexico asome funny people say where is that?

Some times I said Monterrey and they ask me if it is in cancun!

Just last week someone asked me if we have coca cola in Mexico!

Oh funny people!

Colin & Lori Croshaw said...

So do they have Coke in Mexico?

That's a great post. Here's mine (this has happened at least 3 times):
Where are you from?
Idaho.
What part? Near Des Moines?
or oh yeah, I went out there for a soccer tournament.
Oh yeah, what part?
Des Moines.
The best part is to watch them figure out their error as they are saying Des Moines. The other response I get is "where's that?" Really?
That's okay with me though. Let's keep the Gem state Gemmy, I guess.

Side note, Ingram deserved the Heisman over Gerhart. Closest Heisman race in history, separated by only 28 votes.

Colin & Lori Croshaw said...

The other response is:
Have you ever heard this joke about Idaho.....
Clever.

Crystal said...

I really can not comment as a mid-western/Virginian since age 14. BUT! When I first moved to Virginia, I was in 9th grade. When people asked from where I moved and I said "Kansas" they only frame of reference they had was the Wizard of Oz. They would say fun things like "Did you bring ToTo (emphasis on the "t")?"

Ironically I had a non-cropped schnauzer who looked a little like a Cairn Terrier.

As for Idaho. I definitely had my assumptions, but you know what they say about assumptions and I so recently got such a warm reception from another post this week, I will keep it at that. Now I think "best TJ Maxx ever" when I think of Idaho.

Colin & Lori Croshaw said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
David and Debby said...

I used to get similar "Iowa" remarks when I was in the east, the Far East. For some reason, even the 1970ish Koreans had heard of Iowa but not Idaho. Crazy world.
Dad

Colin & Lori said...

I just love Idaho so much! From the top to the bottom it has my heart! I am not sure what I will do if we are guided elswhere in about a year.

abbynormal said...

Once when I was in Spain, I told someone I was from Idaho and they said, "Ah! Las papas!" Oddly enough, sometimes even in other countries they know of Idaho as the potato state...

Crystal said...

Actually that was my assumption- potatoes and nothing but potatoes and I did not see a single one while I was there!

rebeccaV said...

I feel the same way about Idaho, Lori. No matter where I live I will always be an Idahoan at heart!

Colin & Lori Croshaw said...

It will be great when we all end up back in Idaho, right?

Alex Esparza said...

Pocatello or Boise?

Colin & Lori Croshaw said...

Either but mostly Boise